| There are basically five problems in the Democratic Party preventing us from becoming a progressive governing majority.
Democratic leadership ineptitude: There's pervasively poor leadership from Democratic leaders in Congress, from Rahm Emanuel to Nancy Pelosi to Steny Hoyer to John Conyers to John Dingell to Chuck Schumer. Conyers, for instance, pushed hard to get the FISA expansion passed because he was afraid of being blamed for a terrorist attack. Schumer has consistently thought that Iraq would be 'off the table' in 2008 because Bush would have to withdraw. These people don't understand messaging or working with activist allies, and they allow no space for innovation from freshmen.
Bush Dog Democrats: These are people like John Tanner (TN-08) and Melissa Bean, both of whom are reactionary Democrats that undercut progressives with bad votes on a regular basis at key moments.
The Brookings Institute Complex: This is a right-wing institution that cares little for scholarship, despite its credo, yet it still has remarkable amounts of credibility. It's places like this where Petraeus gets his stellar reputation, and where conventional wisdom is shaped.
The Presidential complex: With the exception of Richardson, all major candidates are both advocating for remaining in Iraq and lying to the electorate about their plans with slogans like 'I will end the war'. The electorate is grossly uninformed. And yet, this is consistent, as somehow this process selects for bad leaders. Carter, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Kerry... all of them were either bad candidates or not progressive movement candidates, and usually they were both.
The Activist Base: I sent an email out last night to the Blogpac list, and I asked for suggestions on how to handle Democratic ineptitude. With a few exceptions, no one suggested primary challenges. I found that remarkable. We are so afraid of losing seats, we are so afraid of Republicans winning anywhere that we are willing to suborn all attempts at innovation in the political system to a larger need, which effectively advances the interests of the Brookings institution complex, the Presidential complex, the Democratic leadership, and the Bush Dogs.
This is bad, and I don't know what to do about it. It's my instinct for more democracy and more openness, we need primaries everywhere to complement the 50 state strategy, maybe a 50 state primary strategy. But perhaps we need more than that, a more radical cultural argument. Perhaps we should start explicitly setting ourselves up against the culture of greed and militarism, profit and markets, and for the good life and a set of moral values involving community, humility, and justice. I talked to a very exciting possible Congressional candidate in Virginia today who made this pitch to me in Christian terms, and I found it compelling. The liberal cultural critique of the media and the liberal economic argument mesh nicely with the Christian critique of our excessively materialistic culture.
Anyway, those are just some thoughts. I want us to focus on what we can do as citizens, as activists. Primary challenges, perhaps a 50 state primary challenge strategy, makes sense. |
